Workflow management is often tedious and inefficient. For example, when a number of different parties are involved in a workflow to manage different stages of the workflow, one party may need to be informed of the completion of a preceding stage in order to commence its own stage. It is however often unreliable and inefficient to delegate the task of notification among the parties themselves. And with an increase of the number of parties or complexity of the workflow, the chance of error will multifold. Further, significant resources are required for ensuring accurate and timely notifications for such workflow. Thus, it is desirable to develop efficient and reliable systems and methods to improve workflow management.
Blockchain provides data storage in a decentralized fashion by keeping the data in a series of data blocks having precedence relationship between each other. The chain of blocks is maintained and updated by a network of blockchain nodes, which are also responsible for validating data under a consensus scheme. The stored data may include many data types, such as purchase order status, financial transactions among parties, historical access information, etc.
Blockchain can be maintained and updated by adding blocks of blockchain transactions. To store data to blockchain, the data may be included in the blockchain transactions to add to new blocks of the blockchain. Additionally, many blockchains (e.g., the Ethereum blockchain) have enabled blockchain contracts (also referred to as smart contracts) that are executable through blockchain transactions. For example, blockchain transactions may comprise signed messages originated by externally owned accounts (e.g., blockchain accounts), transmitted by the blockchain network, and recorded in the blockchain. Blockchain contracts may be executed to achieve programmed functions.